The invention relates to the field of tire derimming and tire shredding devices. More specifically, the invention relates to a tire derimming device capable of derimming split rim tires and/or non-split rim tires, and then shredding the derimmed tire.
Tire derimming machines that deform metal rims to remove them from the tires mounted thereon have been in use for a number of years by junk yards and resource reclamation facilities. In the case of smaller automobile tires, the job is burdensome but not generally dangerous to the operator. However, where the much larger and heavier truck tires are concerned, there is a real danger of physical injury to the operator due to the split rim component of the tire that can eject from the tire at a high rate of speed causing serious injury or even death.
Large truck tires have a heavy bead in order to support the heavy loads carried by the trucks. The heavy bead does not allow the rubber tire to be removed from the rim without damage to the tire. Split rims solve this problem by allowing the heavy beaded tire to be removed from the rim without having to use damaging force to pull the tire over the bead. The split rims consist of a two part removable ring on the outside rim that allows the tire to be removed from the rim when the ring is removed from the rim. The split rim (also called a ring) is under a considerable amount of pressure and is therefore dangerous to remove because the ring is barely held by the rim and therefore can fly off of the tire at a high rate of speed if it is not properly aligned. Many people have been injured and killed by ejected rings while changing truck tires. Mechanic's shops that work on split rim tires usually do so inside of a small metal cage due to the danger that the ring may be ejected from the rim.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,945,968 discloses a tire derimming device that has a vertically actuated power cylinder which pushes the metal rim out from the center of the tire. One problem with this device is that it does not work on split rim tires because the downward force of the power actuator does not separate the rim from the ring. Therefore, the rim and ring tear through and are ejected from the tire while the rim and ring are still combined. As discussed above, the ring is delicately combined with the rim under pressure, and, therefore, the ring could forcibly eject from the rim even after they are pushed through the tire by the power actuator.
Applicant is not aware of any device that provides a simple and easy method for derimming semi-truck tires mounted on split rims. Therefore, there is a need for a tire derimming device that is capable of safely separating the tire, ring, and rim of a split rim tire.